Page 7 of Baby Blue
“Good plan.” Blue watched her handling the baby with ease. “By the way, I’m Blue. I don’t even know your name.”
“Polly. It’s actually Paulina, but everyone calls me Polly. Why is your name Blue?”
He shrugged. “I dunno. I suppose it’s because of my eyes. That’s what everyone’s always called me, so I don’t know. Hey, you’re pretty smart with that baby.”
“I babysit sometimes for my friend’s cousins. They’re little.”
“How old are you?”
“I’m thirteen.”
“Ah.” What did one talk to a teenage girl about? Blue tried to come up with conversation starters, but he was having trouble. “Um, school. So you go to school, right?”
“Yeah. Adolph Hillerman Middle School. But we call it AdolfHitler.” That made Blue chuckle. “I hate it. The teachers are really mean,” she added, frowning down at the baby.
“That’s too bad. And you have a little brother, huh?”
“Yeah. Toby. He’s eight. But when he was little he couldn’t sayB, so when people asked him his name, he said Toady. It stuck. That’s what we all call him.”
That made Blue laugh. “Toady! That’s funny. Bet he hates it.”
“Nah. He’s been Toady for so long that he doesn’t really think about it.” She leaned into the baby’s face and rubbed her nose against the tiny one’s. With that, the baby swung its arms up and wiggled. “She’s so cute. What’s her name?”
“Name? Um, Indigo, her birth certificate says,” Blue offered.
“Your name is Blue and hers is Indigo? I like it!” the girl said with a cheerful spark in her voice. “Oh, if you want, you can wipe the poop off in the toilet and then soak the towel in some detergent water. By the time you get ready to do laundry, it’ll be better and you can wash it and use it again.”
Blue shook his head. “No. That towel’sNEVERcoming back into this house,” he declared. “It’s going in the garbage.”
“Don’t blame you there. Here, hold her while I find something,” Polly ordered and held the baby out toward Blue, but he shrank back. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know how. I mean, what if I break her?” The girl laughed out loud. “I’m serious here!” Blue snapped, and she reined in the laughter to a mild chuckle. “Seriously, I don’t know anything about babies.”
The girl’s eyelids narrowed and Blue watched her laughter turn to scorn. “You’re not kidding. You really don’t know anything about babies. You’re scared, aren’t you?”
“Pretty fucking terrified, I’ll admit,” Blue blurted out, then added, “Sorry. Bad words. Shouldn’t say those around a baby, I suppose.”
“Shouldn’t say those aroundanybody,” Polly corrected.
“Yeah, well, you’re not me. You don’t go to the places I go, work at the place I work, do the things I have to do. My life’s a lot different from yours,” he pointed out.
“I guess it is. But seriously, take the, um, Indigo. I’ll be right back.” Polly held the baby out toward him, but Blue recoiled, horrified at the idea of taking the tiny human from the one person in the room who didn’t seem to be afraid of her. “You’ve got to hold her sometime. Just hold out your arms and take her!” Polly barked. She might’ve been small, but he sat up and took notice, sticking both arms out and waiting. When Polly laid the baby in his embrace, Blue stared at the little thing like she wasgoing to spontaneously combust. Of course, it was a sure thing she’d start to scream. He just knew it.
But she didn’t. Instead, Indigo blinked up at Blue and made a weird little screwed-up face.Oh, no. Is she doing that again?he had to wonder, but there was no smell. She waved an arm toward his face, then snuggled against his chest. Blue sat motionless. He was positive that one simple move on his part would set her off, shrieking like gale-force winds and writhing like a tornado. How he’d deal with that, he wasn’t sure. Watching her closely, he saw that she’d squirm a little, then make some kind of weird motion with her lips and tongue. “Hey, what’s she doing?” he called out to Polly.
The girl jetted back into the room and watched for a few seconds. “It’s her sucking reflex. She needs something to suck on. I’ll be right back.” With that, she disappeared.
Blue didn’t have time to even scream out, “Don’t go!” The door closed behind Polly and she was gone. There wasn’t an instant to consider his predicament before he realized he was alone. The sound of his heart pounding out of control took over his senses and he stared at the baby, wondering what would happen next. Without even thinking, he said, “You’re being pretty quiet now.”
That face puckered into the equivalent of an ugly fruit and she started to shriek again. What could he do? Then Blue remembered what Anne had said, but he hadn’t washed his hands. After considering a half dozen different ideas, he managed to get her back into the basket and run to the kitchen. The bottle of dish detergent had “antibacterial” written across its front in green letters, so Blue turned on the hot water and washed his hands as best he could. There was grease on them, especially under his nails, that he knew he’d never get out, but at least they were cleaner than before. He ran back to find theinfant cherry red and screaming so hard she was breathless. Without another thought, he shoved a finger into her mouth.
Her lips clamped down instantly and he could feel her tongue working. The moment was magical as her crying stopped and she sighed and sucked, her chin quivering with stress and frustration. Blue’s eyes went wide with wonder. He knew it wouldn’t work forever, but at least for a few minutes, it was helping.
Standing there with his finger in her mouth was awkward, so he pulled it out and guessed that she’d start to fuss. That was absolutely right?she started to squeak and whimper immediately, but Blue tried to do what he’d already done in reverse as he scooted his arms under her in the basket and gently lifted her. As soon as she was against his chest, she calmed a little, and when he stuck his finger in her mouth, she let out a huge sigh and sucked again.
The sense of satisfaction was overwhelming. He’d actually figured out something that would quiet her! He was so excited that he really wanted to call someone and tell them, but there was no one to call. Besides, that would mean he’d have to take his finger out of her mouth, and no way was he going to do that.
The door opened and Polly reentered. “Let’s try this.”
